With many days of boredom to look forward to, Gloria and Vittorio went off into town to buy entertainment and supplies. First on the list were bigger bags - they'd accumulated quite a lot of things over the months in Pogna and the bags they'd arrived with were no longer enough. Vittorio had a tiny bag of holding to keep his money in but they jointly invested in a larger, though still modest, one for their weapons and armour. Most of it fit, though Gloria would end up carrying her shield and helmet normally. Big backpacks would hold the rest. Some dice, a carved playing board and figures, a new deck of cards, a new set of clothes each, and a large resupply of sewing materials rounded out the mundane goods.
Next, they visited the second-hand magic shop Master Kahe had recommended. There they managed to afford two useful things: A small flashing light they could use to train reflexes, and a tier 1 Nopain. Even though it caused pain, it actually trained mental resistance as the pain wasn't real.
They spent the evening with Tarcisio, saying goodbye to the senior adventurer. He kept switching between euphoric congratulations on their luck, depression over his own situation, and manic excitement about their future. Vittorio was relieved when they called it a night - the man was tiring to be around. He was glad Gloria wasn't going down that route.
In the morning, as Vittorio renewed his pact with {The Still Wind}, he gained his first boon:
Enduring Boon: While traveling, you and any mode of transport you use face reduced headwind. Price Evaluation: A small fraction of wind stopped this way is added to your paid price.
It wasn't exciting perhaps, but with the amount of travel he was about to do it seemed quite useful. He was interested to see how it would improve over time.
Avourel met them in the hall shortly after they'd had breakfast, where they said their farewells and thanks to Ermes and Ochi. A carriage waited for them outside, and soon they were off. It did not take long before they learned the trip would be unpleasant, as Avourel made it clear that he did not want to know them nor for them to know him. This included overhearing their conversations. "Just in case", he said. He also laid claim to the entire table with notes and documents. Vittorio had an occult spell he'd read about he could work on, but irrationally he didn't want Gloria to be the only one without anything to do. He knew it didn't make sense, but he settled down to stare out the window anyway. Weakening Hex could wait.
The journey was incredibly dull, but they made good time. When they stopped for the night the [Driver] asked if any of them had been using any skills to help: Vittorio told her about the effect of his boon, and Avourel said he had a minor travel skill as well. Gloria and Vittorio had been through the town before of course, it being one of three between Pogna and their village, though unsurprisingly nobody remembered them. They had a lentil curry at the inn and then went out for a walk - Vittorio still needed to pay most of the price of his pact. As they walked they brainstormed ways to make the carriage ride less tedious but the only practical solution they came up with was the reaction game.
The journey the next day was thus not quite as terrible, and they stopped outside Celete's inn in the mid-afternoon. They attracted a lot of attention as they did, what with carriages being unheard of there. Gloria ran into the inn shouting for her mother, who was both happy and concerned about her sudden arrival. Vittorio and Avourel silently decided to give them a moment. A moment was all it took.
"Vittorio?", Celeste called out as she exited the inn. Seeing him, she pulled him into a hug. "Come on in. I'll close for the day." It didn't feel right to Vittorio but she brooked no argument, so he joined the little family in the common room. Still, he spoke little, even if his inclusion did gradually grow to comfort him. They didn't tell Celeste any details of course, so while she shared their excitement and worry, she had pride all to herself. Her compliments and confidence in their abilities made him feel like a liar - had not earned this after all, it had been forced upon him.
They spent the day talking and laughing, and a few tears were shed, but eventually, Gloria convinced Celeste to open the inn again if only so Avourel and the [Driver] didn't have to stay outside. Thankfully Avourel had explained to the [Driver] and there were no hard feelings, neither for the wait nor for Celeste going back to Vittorio and Gloria as soon as she'd seen to them.
The three of them stayed up late, drinking sparingly from a bottle of fortified coconut wine. Avourel offered for them to stay for a few days but they settled for a late departure. They walked around, telling the rest of the village they were leaving. Again and again, Vittorio got a handshake or even just a nod and a "Good luck" while Gloria got hugs, gifts, kind words, and every now and then a few tears. It had been some time since he was reminded of how isolated he'd been here. He felt bad for Gloria, but personally? He was more than happy to put it well behind him. There was nothing for him here. There never had been.
Their departure was delayed a bit, of course. The goodbye between mother and daughter took a good twenty minutes. Nobody minded much. No reaction game was played that day.
The journey east took the better part of a week, sped up by Vittorio's boon gaining a modest but natural improvement after another two days of travel:
Enduring Boon: While traveling, you and any mode of transport you use face greatly reduced headwind. Price Evaluation: A small fraction of wind stopped this way is added to your paid price.
Aninosi was smaller than Pogna, yet somehow busier. As the largest stop on the river between the capital and the coast as well as home to a cross-river ferry, the roads to the city carried any number of merchants' wagons and travelers. The city streets were busy as well, with plenty of hawkers and food stands looking for business among the people passing through. While Gloria and Vittorio bought themselves steamed buns for lunch, Avourel found a boat that'd take them downriver the very same day. Passengers were common on the riverboats but they were ultimately cargo craft, so all they really got was a covered space near the aft for sleep.
It was another uncomfortable trip. Neither of the adventurers had ever been on a boat before and its sounds and very gentle rocking unnerved them. The [Trader], a woman named Paola, made the days a bit better by happily talking about where they were going and her business. She specialized in wine grown in the western, mountainous city-states, buying it in the capital and bringing it to Roccante at the river mouth. She'd stopped in Aninosi because she had a small-scale buyer there, but now she was only stopping for food and water - it was a short trip, but bringing more than she had to would cut into her profits. She'd spend the autumn in Roccante as the fall rains made getting upriver too expensive for her. The few boats they met going the other way all looked light and were pulled by oxen walking next to the river.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Avourel, meanwhile, once more settled down with a variety of documents and worked. When Vittorio finally mustered the courage to interrupt the elf, he explained it was a requirement of his travel skill - he moved faster while working. It also provided ample opportunity for Vittorio to pay the price of his pact by keeping the wind from messing with his work. Since they were moving, Suspended air would soon be left behind so he instead had to respond to papers being disturbed. He'd come a long way from the early days when he'd had to visualize the shape in his mind over and over before he could use it.
They spent a night on the boat, then in the city of Civiglia, another on the boat, and in the evening of their fourth day with Paola they arrived in Roccante. The city was huge and sprawling, well over twice the size of Pogna, and spread out on both sides of the river and a number of small islands in the delta. Grand mansions overlooked the city on a smattering of hills to the northwest, while the buildings in the city came in two varieties: On stilts or on tall stone foundations, to keep out the frequent floods. The streets, too, were built high but even so, the autumn rains had pushed the river almost all the way up to them. Small offshoots from the river and canals were common, and gondolas seemed like a fairly common mode of transportation.
Paola brought them near the harbour and let them off with a wave and well-wishes. Avourel warned Vittorio and Gloria that they may be in the city for a few days until he could find a ship. They didn't mind in the slightest - a break to explore a city was just what they needed.
The [Recruiter], familiar with the city, led them to the Free Company hall. It was larger than Pognas, but also plainer: A wooden building with a large sign, where the hall in Pogna had a pair of statues outside. Interestingly, it abutted the river and seemed to have a pair of doors leading out to the water. Avourel left them there while he went to the harbour.
Just like the hall in Pogna, this one opened up into a large, crowded hall where adventurers sat and socialized while at the back there was a reception and quest boards. Unlike Pogna's, there was also a bar and a majority of the adventurers were drinking. Most of the people in the room were human, but there were also a number of frogfolk and pumafolk, three who looked like merfolk and two centaurs. A few looked up when they entered but nobody paid them much mind. A bored-looking official greeted them at the reception.
"What do you want?"
"We're members", Gloria said. "We just arrived and need somewhere to sleep."
"Badges". The man behind the desk accepted their badges, checked with a ledger, and handed them back. "Sleeping hall is downstairs. So's the eating hall. There are no tier 0 quests right now."
"We're not looking for quests, but we're actually tier 1."
The man raised an eyebrow. "Barely. I'm not letting you take any tier 1. I prefer quests to be completed." Somebody behind them laughed.
"Well, we're just passing through anyway. Thanks."
The unhelpful receptionist hadn't told them where the stairs were, so they ended up wandering around for a bit. The layout was very different from what they'd become used to, with a room seemingly for delivering monster parts next to the main hall as well as a smaller one right by the front doors. This turned out to be some sort of drying room according to a sign on the wall. They also found a beast pen, complete with pools for water-based animals. There were also the expected training rooms, even if the function of some eluded them, like one that had a lowered circular section lined with cushions.
The stairs, it turned out, were next to the great hall. Finding the sleeping hall was easy enough and they picked a pair of beds and stowed most of their things before heading out into the city. They didn't go too far in order to avoid getting lost, but they found a few interesting shops - most notably an [Alchemist] who sold them some potions to help with sea sickness for a silver each. They also stopped by a restaurant and had a pretty dull fish soup for dinner before returning to the guild.
Settling in for an evening in the great hall, they - or rather, Gloria - struck up a conversation with some of the locals. Most of the talking was done by Gloria and Corrado, a very friendly [Aquatic Archer] who was more than happy to tell them all about his home city. Things did get a little awkward when Gloria revealed they were headed for Kara, prompting a big man at a neighbouring table to laugh at them and tell them to save their money. He quieted when she told him they'd actually been recruited and were being paid to go there, though that led to a lot of questions about why and how they'd been recruited. Vittorio got a lot of sour looks when they heard he had a unique class. One woman got angry and accused him of thinking he was better than everyone else but thankfully, that was as far as things went.
Avourel arrived the next morning, telling them he hadn't found a ship but one headed for Kara was expected in a day or two. They spent much of those days training, Gloria on her footwork and Vittorio on forming Weakening Hex. When fully formed it would weaken a single muscle in the target's body for a short time. His understanding was that similar to Swelling Hex, the key was in its application: You wanted to target small, key parts of the body. On a human [Warrior], for instance, weakening their thumb might have much better results than going for the bicep. He was hoping to use the structure of Stumbling Hex as a guide, as both targeted individual muscles and lasted for a little while (even if Stumbling Hex's duration was waiting for a trigger). They also took breaks to explore the city, but the weather was quite bad so they didn't go far.
The second evening they also learned the purpose of the river-side doors when, sitting in the main hall, a voice called out.
"Tier 2! Sea monster off the harbour! Hullbreaker eel, unknown traits!"
Immediately a large number of adventurers hurried for the side doors before throwing them open and jumping out. Corrado explained to them.
"Keeping sea monsters away is damn near impossible, so we deal with them when they come up. Everyone who can is on a call rotation - paid to sit in the hall in case something happens, then out the door and down the river we go. The city'll pay anyone who helps though so lots more always join."
"And you're not going?", Gloria asked.
Corrado shook his head. "Not on call, and bad fight. Even a magical arrow wouldn't do much to a hullbreaker. I could join just for the money but... doesn't sit right with me." Gloria and Vittorio both nodded.
Eventually, Avourel came to get them. They waved goodbye to Corrado and a few others they'd chatted with and headed for the harbour. Vittorio's first sight of the ocean staggered him. He'd known what to expect but he'd been unprepared for the vastness of it, even seen past the ships and smaller boats. The endless, unbroken water made him feel small.
"The ship's called 'The Soaring Harpy'. It belongs to the Bloodstone Trading Company so everything should be on the up and up. They'll be making a few stops before Kara, get off if you want but make sure you're on the ship well before it leaves. They won't wait for you. Do not get off in Nulbumundi, it's too dangerous."
"I thought they venerated the god of law?"
"They do. It's the law that's dangerous." Vittorio shared a look with Gloria. "I'll send a message to a friend in Kara, stay on the ship and she'll find you. Keep the details of your recruitment private, she doesn't know."
By then they'd arrived on a pier flanked by smaller boats. Avourel introduced them to Leao, a [Sailor] on the Soaring Harpy who'd be taking them out to the ship which was anchored some ways out. They tried to thank Avourel but the elf shook his head.
"Just doing my job. Have a safe journey."
With that, he turned and left. It seemed terribly rude to Vittorio but there was nothing to it. They got in the rowboat and Leao cast off, soon taking them away from shore and out towards the sea.